Railroad-frog



(No Model.)

0. G. LEA.

RAILROAD FROG. No. 394,379.

Patented Dec. 11 1888.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES G. LEA, OF ATCHISON, KANSAS.

RAILROAD-FROG.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,379, dated December 11, 1888.

Application filed July 3, 1883. Serial No. 99,936. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES G. LEA, of Atchison, in the county of Atchison and State of Kansas, have invented an Improvement in the Manufacture of Railroad-Frogs, Railroad- Crossings, and Similar Devices Used in the Tracks of Railroads; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a perspective view of a railroadfrog made after my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the same on the line .70 a; of 1. Fig. 3 shows a railroad-crossing made after my invention.

The object of my invention is to provide a railroad-frog, railroad-crossing, or similar device made without any drilling or use of bolts or wedges to hold the parts together, and yet have a safe and substantial union between the parts, and a supporting bed-plate integral with the casting holding the pieces of rolled rail together, the pieces of rail having previously been properly shaped, as hereinafter fully set out.

I11 order that those skilled in the art may make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried it. out.

In the said drawings, A A A represent the rails of a frog. These rails may be of rolled steel or of rolled iron and of any re quired form. In a mold made in the usual manner, provided with suitable cores, the rolled rails A A A, previously shaped, are placed in their proper relative positions, said rails being cold. Molten castiron is then poured into the mold and spreads beneath the base-flanges of the rails A A A", and rises up around and between the bases of the rails and the webs to such a height as not to interfere with the flanges of the car-wheels, and

forms a plate, B, in which is firmly embedded the rails A A A". In cooling, the plate B shrinks close around all the lower parts of the rails and holds them rigidly, forming a solid bearing for the rails, and no drilling or bolts or wedges required.

Heretofore the rails or rail-sections have been heated to a red or welding heat before being placed in the mold. My method of manufacture differs therefrom in employing the railsections cold, the object being to have the molten metal shrink about and in contact with the rails as it cools, thus securing a firm union and reducing the cost of manufacture.

-I am aware that spacing-pieces have been heretofore cast in frogs to hold the wings or guard-rails at proper distances apart, the said spacing-pieces being cast around bolts; but my invention has no such construction.

I am also aware that heretofore pieces of straight rails have been inserted in molds to abut against a casting of a frog or similar device, and hence make no broad claim to inserting rails in a mold designed to receive molten metal; but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a railroad frog or crossing, the combination, with rolled rails having base-flanges, of a base-plate cast beneath and around the base-flanges and upward on both sides of the lower portions of the rail-webs, as and for the purpose set forth.

2. That improvement in the manufacture of railroad frogs and crossings which consists in casting a metal plate around and beneath the lower portions of rail sections having base-flanges and placed cold and in proper position within a mold, substantially as de scribed.

CHAS. G. LEA.

Witnesses:

\V. s. FEEGUsoN, JAMES H. LEA. 

